2.1. WEED CONTROL
The use of herbicides for controlling weeds or plants in crops has become almost a universal practice. The market for these herbicides approaches a billion dollars annually. Even with this extensive use, weed control remains a significant and costly problem for the farmer.
Present day herbicides used singly or in so-called tank mixes require good management to be effective. Time and method of application and stage of weed plant development are critical to getting good weed control with herbicides. Some weed species are simply resistant to today's herbicides. Therefore, the production of effective herbicides increases in importance every year, especially as other weeds are controlled and thus reduce competition. Application of large amounts of marginally effective herbicides on these weeds can result in a commitment to grow the same crop in subsequent years because of chemical persistence in the soil which prevents rotation with a crop sensitive to that herbicide.
Other herbicides, while not used directly to control weeds in field crops, are used as "total vegetation control agents" to entirely eliminate weeds in certain railroad and industrial situations. These herbicides may be deposited on areas where crops are planted by water run-off, or other natural means. Thus, in fields affected by run-off from land on which total vegetation control agents have been used, sensitive field crops may be killed or their growth seriously inhibited.
Herbicides with greater potency, broader weed spectrum and more rapid degradation in the soil would have a significant impact on these problems. Unfortunately, these compounds also have greater crop phytotoxicity. Crop hybrids or varieties with resistance to the compounds would provide an attractive solution by allowing the compounds to be used without risk of damage to the crop.
2.2. TISSUE CULTURE OF MAIZE
Irrespective of the plant species, there are a number of common features that apply to most tissue culture programs. The technique of cell and tissue culture has been widely developed, and much work has been done on growth, metabolism and differentiation of tissue culture of dicotyledons (Yamada, 1977, in Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture, eds. Reinert and Bajaj, pp. 144-159, Springer-Verlag, Berlin). However, successful tissue culture studies with monocotyledons (e.g., the cereal crops such as maize, rice, wheat, barley, sorghum, oats, rye and millet) leading to plant regeneration are not as well documented as with dicotyledons. Success is frequently dependent on choosing donor tissues for culture initiation which come from plants of appropriate genotype as well as physiological and development states. Other features which are obviously also important include the organic and inorganic composition of the growth medium and the physical environment in which the cultures are grown.
In maize, the development of tissue cultures capable of plant regeneration was accomplished after the identification of appropriate genotypes and donor tissues (Green and Rhodes, 1982 in Maize for Biological Research, ed. W. F. Sheridan, pp. 367-371, Plant Molecular Biology Associates, Charlottesville, Va.). The first method developed which regenerated plants from tissue cultures of maize used immature embryos as donor tissues. With N6 or MS growth media (defined below in Section 6) and a synthetic auxin, such as 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), tissue cultures develop rapidly from the scutellum of the embryos. The resulting cultures are developmentally heterogeneous and contain a variety of tissue types. Removal of the 2,4-D from the growth medium permits these cultures to produce large numbers of regenerated plants. Cultures of this type have proved capable of regenerating plants for up to three years.
Another donor tissue from which regenerable tissue cultures of maize have been initiated are immature tassels. This tissue is the male flower and as it matures it is responsible for pollen production. Immature embryos, inflorescences, and the few other tissues in cereals from which regenerating cultures have been initiated all have the common characteristic of juvenility. Regenerated plants obtained from tissue cultures are grown to maturity in a glasshouse, growth chamber, or field. The progeny seed produced in crosses with regenerated plants permits the evaluation of subsequent generations. The basic tissue culture methods developed for corn have been extended to many other cereal species.
An interesting development in recent years has been the occurrence of somatic embryogenesis in tissue cultures of maize. Somatic embryogenesis is the process where cells from callus, suspension, or protoplast cultures develop into complete embryos similar to zygotic embryos produced in seeds. It is now possible to reliably initiate cultures of corn which have two important characteristics. One is that the callus cultures are friable, meaning that they are soft and loose in texture. This property is important because cultures of this type exhibit rapid growth and it facilitates the initiation of suspension cell cultures. The other valuable attribute of these friable cultures is their ability to form very large numbers of somatic embryos. Microscopic examination reveals the presence of many small, organized structures on the surface of the callus. These structures are young somatic embryos at various developmental stages. These friable cultures will retain their embryogenic potential for as long as two years and have shown the capacity to produce extremely large numbers of somatic embryos.
The somatic embryos in these friable calli develop to maturity when the cultures are transferred to medium containing 5 to 6 percent sucrose and no hormones. After approximately two weeks of growth on this medium, many embryos have become quite mature. They germinate rapidly and grow into plants when placed on MS or N6 medium containing 2% sucrose. The plants are then established in soil and are grown to maturity.
It is now well-documented that a high level of genetic variability can be recovered from plant tissue culture. It is well documented that spontaneous genetic variability in cultured plant cells may be the result of mutation (Meredith and Carlson, 1982, in Herbicide Resistance in Plants, eds. Lebaron and Gressel, pp. 275-291, John Wiley and Sons, NY). The frequency of mutants can also be increased by the use of chemical or physical mutagens. Some of this variability is of agronomic importance. Mutants for disease resistance have been obtained in sugarcane for Fiji disease, early and late blight in potato, and southern corn leaf blight in maize. In rice, maize, and wheat considerable variability for traits inherited as single genes of plant breeding interest have been recovered, including time of seed set and maturation, seed color and development, plant height, plant morphology, and fertility.
Tissue cultures of maize have been used to recover mutants for disease resistance and amino acid overproduction as described below.
Texas male sterile cytoplasm (cms-T) genotypes of maize are susceptible to the pathotoxin produced by the fungus Helminthosporium maydis race T while normal cytoplasm (N) genotypes are resistant (Gengenbach et al., 1977, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 74: 5113-5117). Similarly, tissue cultures obtained from cms-T genotypes are susceptible to the pathotoxin while N genotype cultures are resistant. The pathotoxin from H. maydis race T was used to select resistant cell lines from susceptible cms-T cultures using a sublethal enrichment selection procedure. After five cycles of increasing selection pressure, cell lines were recovered which were resistant to lethal levels of the pathotoxin. Plants regenerated from these cell lines also were resistant to the pathotoxin and were male-fertile. Genetic analysis of progeny obtained from resistant, male-fertile plants showed that both traits were maternally inherited. Infection of plants with H. maydis race T spores demonstrated that selection for pathotoxin resistance also resulted in resistance to the disease organism by plants.
Selection for resistance to growth inhibition by lysine plus threonine in equimolar concentrations (LT) in tissue cultures of maize yielded a stable resistant line, LT19 (Hibberd and Green, 1982, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 79: 559-563). Genetic analysis of progeny of plants regenerated from LT19 showed that LT resistance was inherited as a single dominant nuclear gene. Tissue cultures initiated from resistant embryos required 5-10 times higher levels of LT to inhibit growth than did cultures from LT-sensitive embryos. LT resistance in LT19 was expressed as reduced sensitivity of root and shoot growth to the presence of LT. The free pool of threonine was increased 6 times in cultures initiated from immature embryos of LT-resistant plants, and 75-100 times in kernels homozygous for LT19, as compared to cultures and kernels from LT-sensitive embryos and plants, respectively. Overproduction of free threonine increased the total threonine content in homozygous LT19 kernels by 33-59%. The results demonstrate that LT resistance selected with tissue culture methods was heritable and was expressed in cultures, seedlings, and kernels.
2.3. MECHANISMS OF HERBICIDE RESISTANCE
There are three general mechanisms by which plants may be resistant to, or tolerant of, herbicides. These mechanisms include insensitivity at the site of action of the herbicide (usually an enzyme), rapid metabolism (conjugation or degradation) of the herbicide, or poor uptake and translocation of the herbicide. Altering the herbicide site of action from a sensitive to an insensitive form is the preferred method of conferring resistance on a sensitive plant species. This is because resistance of this nature is likely to be a dominant trait encoded by a single gene and is likely to encompass whole families of compounds that share a single site of action, not just individual chemicals. Therefore, detailed information concerning the biochemical site and mechanism of herbicide action is of great importance and can be applied in two ways. First, the information can be used to develop cell selection strategies for the efficient identification and isolation of appropriate herbicide resistant variants. Second, it is used to characterize the variant cell lines and regenerated plants that result from the selections.
2.4. HERBICIDE RESISTANCE SELECTION
Tissue culture methods have been used to select for resistance (or tolerance) using a variety of herbicides and plant species (see review by Meredith and Carlson, 1982, in Herbicide Resistance in Plants, eds. Lebaron and Gressel, pp. 275-291, John Wiley and Sons, NY). The results of these investigations can be separated into two categories based on whether or not herbicide tolerance was stably inherited and expressed in the progeny of plants regenerated from the selected resistant cultures. This criterion clearly establishes the mutant nature of the selected trait. A number of tissue culture studies have been conducted to select for tolerance to 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) in carrot, tobacco and white clover, to amitrole in tobacco, to asulam in celery, and to paraquat in tobacco, in none of which was the mutant nature of the resistance trait established by genetic analysis. These studies have therefore provided little evidence demonstrating the feasibility of tissue culture selection methods to produce herbicide resistant mutant plants which transmit the trait to progeny which express the resistance.
Three studies are available, however, which provide evidence that tissue culture methods can be utilized to obtain herbicide resistant mutants. Tobacco selected for tolerance to bentazon and phenmedipham yielded resistant plants (Radin and Carlson, 1978, Genet. Res., Camb., 32: 85-90). Genetic analysis of progeny from regenerated plants yielded data in the F2 generation confirming a genetic basis for resistance in 8 bentazon and 2 phenmedipham selected lines. The F2 segregation ratios indicated single gene recessive mutations for most of the lines except two bentazon lines in which two genes were indicated.
Chaleff and Parsons (1978, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 75: 5104-5107) used tissue culture selection methods to isolate picloram resistant mutants from tobacco suspension cultures. Plants were regenerated from six of seven resistant lines selected. Resistance to picloram was transmitted to progeny in four of these lines and was expressed in both plants and callus tissues. In all four cases, segregation ratios were those expected from dominant single-gene mutations. In additional genetic analysis two of these mutants were shown to be linked.
Tomato callus lines were selected for the ability to grow at paraquat concentrations lethal to wild-type cells (Thomas and Pratt, 1983, Theor. Appl. Genet. 63: 109-113). Diploid plants were regenerated from 9 of the 19 paraquat resistant callus lines isolated. New callus cultures were initiated from these regenerated plants and typically showed at least a 30 fold increase over wild-type in resistance to paraquat. Tests on callus lines initiated from sexual progeny of regenerated plants showed that the paraquat resistance phenotype of three lines resulted from dominant nuclear mutations. Paraquat spray experiments indicated that slight paraquat resistance was expressed at the plant level in only one of the resistant lines.
2.5. HERBICIDAL IMIDAZOLINONES
A broad selection of imidazolinones, particularly 2-(2-imidazolin-2-yl)pyridines and 2-(2-imidazolin-2-yl) quinolines, or derivatives thereof, exhibit herbicidal activity. See, for example, European Patent Application 81 103638.1 naming Los as inventor and American Cyanamid Company as applicant, which application is incorporated herein by reference. Exemplary herbicides of particular interest described in this application are 2-(5-isopropyl-5-methyl-4-oxo-2-imidazolin-2-yl)nicotinic acid (AC 243,997), 2-(5-isopropyl-5-methyl-4-oxo-2-imidazolin-2-yl)3-quinolinecarboxylic acid (AC 252,214), [5-ethyl,2-(5-isopropyl-5-methyl-4-oxo-2-imidazolin-2-yl)nicotinic acid (AC 263,499), and acid addition salts thereof.
For purposes of reference in the present specification, the herbicides described in this Section 2.5, and structurally related herbicidal compounds, are collectively referred to as imidazolinones or the imidazolinone family of herbicides.
2.6. HERBICIDAL SULFONAMIDES
Certain sulfonamides exhibit general and selective herbicidal activity against plants. Such herbicidal sulfonamides are disclosed in at least the following issued United States Patents:
4,435,206 4,370,480 4,302,241 4,424,073 4,370,479 4,293,330 4,417,917 4,369,320 4,257,802 4,398,939 4,369,058 4,231,784 4,394,506 4,368,067 4,225,337 4,391,627 4,348,219 4,221,585 4,383,113 4,342,587 4,214,890 4,378,991 4,339,267 4,190,432 4,372,778 4,339,266 4,169,719 4,371,391 4,310,346 4,127,405
All of such United States patents are incorporated herein by reference. One such herbicidal sulfonamide of particular interest is 2-chloro-N-[(4-methoxy-6-methyl-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)aminocarbonyl] benzenesulfonamide, also known as chlorsulfuron.
Additional sulfonamides having herbicidal activity are described in European patent application 84 113656.7 of Gerwick et al., filed Nov. 12, 1984, which is incorporated herein by reference. This application describes herbicidal compounds which are referred to herein as 1,2,4-triazolo[1,5-a] pyrimidine-2-sulfonamides. One such compound of particular interest is 5,7-dimethyl-N-(2,6-dichlorophenyl)-1,2,4-triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine-2-sulf onamide, hereafter referred to as 567.
For purposes of reference in the present specification, the herbicides referred to in this Section 2.6, and structurally related herbicidal compounds, are collectively referred to as herbicidal sulfonamides.